A short and spoilerfree review on a show I never expected to like this much Im not a person who writes anime reviews often. Up until now that has only occured once as a way of paying tribute to my new favorite show. So what exactly pushed me to do this again? Answer being bewilderment. I refused to believe that a title of such high quality remains unnoticed by so many people for almost two consecutive years. And while there is a good reason to this I found it extremely hard to cope with. And thus I decided to contribute a little so even despite the lack of proper official localization at least more of you will learn about this show to begin with. And since the Japanese dub was already teased maybe by the time of you reading this such problem no longer exists and you simply want to know whether this piece of media is worth your time so let us start somewhere. What do we know about Chinese anime? Or rather more correct term being donghuahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chineseanimation. Among other things its usually known for incredibly intricate plotlines. Be it the scope of the story authors will at giving you an aneurysm or more often than not difference in how we the consumers perceive certain cultural elements we are not yet used to. Still the fact remains it is often challenging to keep track of all the things being thrown at your face without a bottle of strong liquor. But is Dragon Raja an exception? My friend you wont believe it no. That being said dont make haste at writing it off because it does actually have lots of things to offer. And I mean just look at this fragment from the opening sequence and tell me youre not even remotely interested at giving it a chance. https://i.ur.com/c9VtukK.mp4 Now why I think you should give it a chance? Good question I reply to myself. Reason being its entertaining as hell. Seriously going in this show fully blind and receiving such a strong amount of dopamine was something I clearly did not expect to say the least. I was surprised by how clean it looks with their stupid yet working approach to humor with the fact that for once I actually needed to pay attention in order to piece things together. Its incredibly fun to watch a popcorn grab of a show that can actually offer something more than you would initially give it credit for. This level of polish for a show barely anyone knows about outside of China is literally mind blowing. Whats even more surprising is that when you really think about it there is nothing special to point at. Pretty much everything was executed in a solid way simply to keep you invested. This sort of program minimum has worked wonders. Just think of an infamous it has a little something for everyone quote but try and take it literally this time lol. Say our main characterhttps://anilist.co/character/271923/MingfeiLu who is he? Just an ordinary college student whos good at video games and can transfer his skills to whatever his new calling is? Weve seen dozens of those. Its a pretty standard trope for many power fantasy anime. And this show once again is no exception. Or is it? Frankly speaking no. But there is a little spin on it to which Ill get right after finishing talking about our main protagonist. You see as a leading figure he is not someone wholl be carrying this show on his shoulders thats one thing certain. And yet he has a fairly realistic worldview and is pretty funny in general so neither can I call him boring. I dont mind him. Daresay I like him? What is there not to like anyway? He grows as a person and both his awkward and phlegmatic sides seem fairly befitting. Those are real world qualities many people of his age possess. Its a paragon of what I was talking about in a previous paragraph. But where is this spin I mentioned? Well let me introduce you to Lu Mingzehttps://anilist.co/character/271924/MingzeLu. What do we know of him? Hardly anything. What matters is his relationship with the main character. He plays a major part in the story and soon youll realize that perhaps there is a little more to this coincidence of Lu Mingfeihttps://anilist.co/character/271923/MingfeiLu instantly becoming an Sclass student. And while were at it I want to commend the author for creating such a unique sense of presence around this character. Bro is literally radiating with mystery and Im all in for that. Such a nice way to deliver a character identity of which well be theorizing about for long. https://i.ur.com/wvJXCca.mp4 And lets also explore the story itself a little. Did I mention it being confusing? You bet it is. However its not because the plot itself is complex. Honestly Id argue that its actually pretty straightforward especially for those familiar with Chinese folklore as mentioned in the second paragraph. What makes it confusing though is how they deliver this plot. They throw so much what would initially seem to be random bullshit at you it is quite hard not to get confused. But eventually given you pay attention youll piece together some kind of picture. And personally I love this kind of approach to storytelling. Theres just something about not understanding whats going on at first but then suddenly having a moment of realization where it all or most of it clicks with you. This is also why I decided to mention Kojimahttps://anilist.co/staff/100732/HideoKojima in the summary of this review. He tends to approach the narrative aspect of his creations from a similar direction and I simply love it. To conclude this short thought dump Id like to once again highlight the remarkable job the studio had done at polishing this donghua. It doesnt particularly shine in a complete definition of the word yet manages to do just enough to feed your hunger. While not being a comedy it does a great job even at that. And it also possesses many amazing original soundtracks the way some of them complement the atmosphere is just chefs kiss. And some I would even include in my playlist especially the opening sequence. Then theres the aforementioned story complexity of which doesnt necessarily hide in the size of authors quill as it does in interesting ways of storytelling. The way all of those and other things blend together creates an incredibly entertaining experience worthy of dedicating your time to. And so all things considered its truly unfair that this piece of media still didnt get a proper worldwide recognition it deserves. Sure it is far from being perfect. It does possess those shounenesque moments that are no surprise for us or weird characters that dont necessarily scream word deep when you think of writing. There are also quite a few questions left unanswered. My final score clearly reflects on all those things. And yet I would like to withhold my judgment on some of them until the next season as it is obvious that things are far from over yet.